Two shoot each other during argument in East Taunton House

Saturday

TAUNTON – Tony and Melanie Chitas of East Taunton say they never expected to hear that the Puccio brothers next door would shoot each other.

“I’m shocked,” Melanie said, adding that “I feel bad for the family.”

Taunton police say the shooting inside the Puccio house at 230 Erin Road just before 3 p.m. left two men living there wounded.

One of them, police said, was shot in an arm. The other was shot “multiple times,” according to a police department press release.

Both men, cops said, were transported by ambulance to Rhode Island Hospital.

Police say the shooting stemmed from an argument that escalated to a confrontation involving a knife.

The Puccio house is perched on a small hill in a cul-de-sac at the end of Erin Road -- located in a wooded, residential neighborhood with medium to large single-family homes.

Tony Chitas, who lives with his wife and their two young children at 225 Erin Road, says a neighbor on the block informed them that the Puccio brothers apparently had shot each other.

“We tend to stick together,” Chitas said of the woman who relayed the breaking news, when it comes to keeping an eye on the block.

Melanie said the same neighbor sent a text message shortly after the shooting warning her that someone had been shot and to lock her doors.

The Puccio siblings, Tony and Melanie said, appear to be in their 30s and live in the house, not only with their mother, who looks as though she is in her 70s, but also with a woman they say is one of the brothers’ girlfriend.

Melanie and Tony say during the five years they’ve lived on the otherwise quiet cul-de-sac, the Puccio family, including the brothers and mother, have been over to their house more than once for dinner.

Tony, 38, said Tim Puccio, who struck him as being a “quiet” individual, previously had mentioned that he legally owns more than one gun.

“But he never discussed it,” Chitas said, adding that Tim and Ben Puccio struck him as being “homebodies.”

A police source said the man who suffered multiple gun wounds had been shot four or five times, including in the thigh, shoulder and back. A police source also confirmed the identities of the victims.

Police in Massachusetts are restricted by state law from initially revealing identities of individuals involved in violent incidents considered to be “domestic,” according to Lt. Paul Roderick, who handles press releases for Taunton police.

Roderick said Saturday’s incident is being investigated detectives Michael Bonenfant, Robert Kramer and Honorato Santos.